AIBU to question school swimming changing room supervision and safeguarding?

[NotMyPiggy]

My child is in Y3. They go swimming every week and ask for parent volunteers to accompany them to walk there. I have recently found out that on days when they struggle for a volunteer or staff, there has just been one Mum on her own accompanying the whole changing room of girls getting changed. This Mum hasn't been DBS checked (I suspect, because none of us are asked to be when we take a turn).
I am asking whether this is usual from a safeguarding perspective?

Are you sure she is actually inside the changing room with the children. When I take my class swimming us adults stand at the door outside the changing rooms (it’s like a large private room within the public changing room, one for the boys and one for the girls, only one entrance / exit) and tend to yell in ‘hurry up, stop mucking’ yada yada yada, from the door.

Are the kids in cubicles, or one big room?

Is it a big communal changing room and she goes inside it , instead of waiting outside? Or are there individual/group cubicles and she is waiting outside? The actual set up matters. As school staff we avoid being present when children are changing, unless something happens or it is required by the individual needs of a child. It would be very odd for an adult(DBS checked or not) to be required to actively supervise changing children .

Yes, it's a big open changing room with only 2 cubicles but there are aroud 16 girls

Then that is absolutely not ok. TBH I wouldn’t want to be inside the changing room with my class girls and I am obviously fully DBS checked, it’s a massive risk for her as much as the children and is so inappropriate- does the male teacher stand inside with the boys too? I really don’t get why they are inside the changing area.

Blimey! At DC’s primary parents had to be DBS checked to help w changing for swimming.

This is so odd!
I’ve helped a few times at school swimming, there’s 1 teacher and a parent helper walks them there and back safely.
Absolutely none of the adults go into the changing room. Any adult where any of the children are changing is a massive safeguarding risk and needs to be reported.
Sometimes some of the girls want help getting their hair back into a pony tail, which I do, when they’re fully dressed and out in the open. Or the odd child who still can’t tie up their laces but for some reason was sent in with laces. That’s the maximum involvement any adult should have….. none should be watching them change.

Yeah, that's not OK.

I volunteered loads of times to take the kids swimming. Parent volunteers were strictly helping to walk the kids there and back safely. Once we got there, the parents aren't allowed in the changing rooms - we went to the spectator area. I'm at the swimming pool numerous times a week and that's the same for all schools.

Not nowadays no. To ask random people to volunteer this was acceptable when I was young but hell what happened silently back then and sadly still now.
However just to point out nothing is great, my eldest was in yr3 and couldn’t get changed without help so I was in the boys changing room, this was a different set up in that if the parent was male no matter the sex of the child they had to be in the male room too, so room had girls and boys and Mums and Dads (girls room was all female). There were clear signs no mobile phones / cameras etc were allowed in the changing rooms.

There was a Dad sat down pointing his phone at my naked DC getting changed, I quickly accosted him and he was embarrassed, his 5yr old daughter was solo and struggling getting changed and watching an iPad. I complained to the owner to resolve. He may have been watching a movie who knows, blooming changing rooms. After that I took my DC home wet and wrapped them in a big towel, I didn’t see him for a long time his wife came.

Just to add, when I volunteered with reading in school, before my DBS came through I couldn't even walk down the corridor by myself. I had to wait at the office for a staff member to get me and walk me to the classroom. It's always that strict.

There’s no harm in asking the school to clarify at all. I used to help at school, however due to the regularity I was asked to be DBS checked. Not sure how this other parent ‘knows’ but the only way to be certain is to ask. That’s absolutely what I would do.
its not fair on the mum in this situation either.

I had to be DBS checked to read with the children! I am shocked they have let a parent that isn’t checked into the changing room alone with them 😳

Definitely illegal.

Definitely need to be DBS checked if on their own with children, that is statutory. At my school, we would never leave this supervisory role to a parent even with a DBS check.

Raise it with school as a safeguarding concern.

Nope, I'd be seriously unhappy about this. I think they've fallen into the trap of "women aren't abusers/a risk" and if there was a lone dad in the changing rooms with all the boys whilst they get undressed with no teacher and no dbs, then they'd not consider it. Obviously a dbs is not fail proof, but it's what we've got. If something happened they'd be absolutely ripped apart. Personally, I think a TA or teacher should be used because this is also important for general additional safeguarding which they will be trained in (e.g. a child who has consistent bruising noticed under their clothes or who says something inappropriate when getting changed). It's also a risky point for bullying/commenting on each others bodies, and again I'd want a TA or teacher there to manage anything too, rather than an unchecked random mum. Volunteers are great in schools for helping alongside teachers (reading, trips, activities) but alone in a room with them whilst they're putting swimmers on is not really that place I don't think. Our school use a pool with a "changing village" so it's unisex and the TA and teacher are both around.

the other parent ‘knows’ because it was her who accompanied them and her who told me about it and I am sure she would know if she was DBS checked?

This! It is just crazy that a mum can’t supervise a few girls as she has not DBS. Honestly, what a society we are in

I wouldn’t be happy with that. Seems like a policy failure and the other mum seems to have been unsure of what they asked if her since she’s mentioned to you. It’s putting her in terrible position.

i don’t think the teacher should be in the changing room either relalt. Ours doesn’t go in. They’ll call in through the door of the girls are taking too long and help with hair shoes etc as needed whrn the child comes out of the changing room dressed.

So if this particular Mum was abusive to her own child you would be perfectly happy with them supervising your child getting dressed on their own? It isn’t crazy at all.

This is a massive concern which you are right to raise, is a breach of safeguarding policies and needs a call to the LADO and Ofsted. LADO is the Local Authority Designated Offer at your Council.

I volunteered at GCs school hearing children read. I was DBS checked. I was able to show a DBS as I had one for my job but the school still did their own DBS. Seems shocking that this mother wasn't checked, not her fault of course.

This was me about 10 years ago. I'd get roped into volunteering to walk the class to swimming, but then also had to walk them into the changing rooms. I always felt a bit weird, because obviously I hadn't been DBS checked or anything. They were just so short staffed. The kids went into cubicles and I waited by the hair dryers, but still didn't feel right

It’s not just supervising a few girls. The girls are completely naked. They could be uncomfortable with it . They deserve just as much privacy as anybody else. It’s bad enough that they have to do it in front of each other.

The DBS and not being in the room is for the girls’ protection , but for the mum as well. One wrong comment , look , action (even with no malicious intent) leaves her open to all kinds of accusations. I’m school staff and I would never do it.

The kids aren’t in cubicles. It’s also a concern for my friend who was put in this position because she has no protection if an accusation was made against her.